Dawnhammer
by Ace Warbringer
Summary: For the crew of the Matriarchs Light, the day was going to hell. For the Dawnhammers refit voyage, new things are about to occur. For when the Matriarchs Light opens a relay, chased by a Reaper. One ship will stand and face a new world. (Now continued!)
1. Chapter 1

**Dawnhammer**

(Halo, Mass Effect x-over)

* * *

For the crew of the Matriarchs Light, a small cov-ops frigate. The day was going to shit.

The screams, commands, and shouted curses flare across the bridge, told of a battle which was lost from the start. A roar from an armor-plated Turian echoed strangely across the bridge "Captain! The shields cant take another hit!"

With a quick shouted "Helm! Get us out of here!" from the Asari, the small frigate jumped into FTL drive.

OOOOO

Ships evening found them dumping drive charge in the mass shadow of a small moon. Asari Captain Liara T'soni rubbed a hand across her brow. Five long hard years had aged her in a way she never would have imagined. The ship was a wreck. Fifteen percent drive core functionality, weapons offline, cloak was just a load of dead weight now. The armor was breached in multiple places. If it wasn't for the massive drive core stuffed in the ass of the ship they would be dead in space now.

A ping from the bridge doorway had her call to enter, and in walked a very close friend. She acknowledged the Turian, "Garrus."

Garrus Vakarin, Specter of council space. She had been his first major rescue mission, it seemed so strange looking back. She had never thought of being a ships officer. But he had offered, and for her friend she had accepted.

"How's engineering look?" her six year long association with the Turian had allowed her to pick up on his body language. He had good news, "Very good. Having Tali on board is a gift from the Spirits. We should be up to 50% function by tomorrow according to her." Liara nodded with satisfaction, indeed the Quarian had been a gift of the goddess "Anything else?"

The Turian stood ill at ease, "Twelve casualties. Three fatal. Two are down until we can get somewhere with medical facilities."

She buried her face in her hands, her blue skin taking a darker hue in her grief. Half the crew was dead now. And they had been understaffed to begin with. When she finally looked up her face was streaked with tears, "What are your orders, Specter?"

"I've contacted the council. The reapers are everywhere it seems, but not in strength. I warned them and they didn't listen. So now they've gotten desperate."

A heavy sigh escaped the Turian. "The council has ordered me to do something incredibly stupid…."

OOOOO

For commander Jane Sheppard UNSC, the old saw about an old dog and new tricks was always forefront as she walked through the ship. When she first had begun her tenure as an officer of the UNSC, she had always requested the newest and best of the fleet to serve on. She hadn't always gotten her wish. But until she had boarded this old dog, she had at least been on or near the forefront of technology.

Until the Hammer of Dawn that is. When she had first come aboard She was the second oldest ship in the fleet. At forty two years old the ship had seen fifteen more orbits of earth around the sun then she had. And it showed. Things were failing left and right. Parts were not replaced easily, and more often then not had to be manufactured from scratch.

The only thing that had kept Her from the scrap yard was the war. The Human-Covenant war had been in its final stages when High-Com had re-commissioned the ship. Quickly refueled and rearmed she had just managed to arrive to serve in the final battle over Earth.

Sheppard shook her head. The ship had taken a such a beating, it seemed impossible for Her to fight on. But for a Halcyon class light cruiser, impossible seems to be the order of business. With most of Her compartments vented to space, Her MAC the only operational piece of war equipment left, missile supplies and point defense guns exhausted, the Hammer of Dawn had fought on. Helping to secure the victory in Sol system.

High-Com decided She had earned a new chance at Life. That or they had been really desperate for ships.

Rebuilt, Reinvented, and Rearmed. The Hammer of Dawn got a new lease. Receiving the near same upgrades as her sister ship, Pillar of Autumn, she was re-commissioned following the war. Along with new armaments, new crew, and pretty much new everything, including some new tricks. She received a new name.

Dawnhammer.

Yes, Sheppard thought, sometimes you could indeed teach an old dog, new tricks.

OOOOO

**Sol system, Neptune Pluto transit sub-light velocity "Dawnhammer"**

"Commander?"

The dark red hair and cold green eyes turned away from the viewport and tracked in on the voice of Mr. Pressly, the third officer. "What is it Mr. Pressly?" Even though the man was a couple years her senior in terms of time in service and age, she had rank. Nothing she ever pulled of course, but the man… was… underwhelming? He just didn't have the drive she had, she guessed.

"Strange readings ma'am, our mass detectors have been twitching like crazy." he pointed out a couple of readings on the holopanel in front of him.

Sheppard looked at the screen for a moment "Astrid. Any ideas?"

A flicker from the A.I.'s avatar pedestal and a young Viking woman wielding a battleaxe popped up. "Not a clue yet, commander." the AI's choice of avatar was a blond, blue eyed woman wearing an armored skirt and furs. Very Valkyrie if you asked the commander, "Though doing some direction finding points everything at Charon. Kerberos is also a possibility, but I'm placing my Gold on Charon."

"Reactor status?"

"Shakedowns complete in 20 minutes commander." replied Pressly.

The redhead straitened, and turned to the helmsman, "Joker?" she used the pilots nickname. "Twenty minutes commander." "Bring us about." "Aye-aye, ma'am."

The commander tapped a button, and spoke softly, "Captain? We may have an issue, request you come to the bridge Sir."

Captain Andersons voice came through the speaker, "On my way."

OOOOO

Captain Anderson stared at the moon beginning to break up in front of him. "… and all of those readings?" the AI finished the sentence. "Point right here captain. I booted up the primary slipspace gravimetric detectors on a hunch and the readings are in the isobeta band, and rapidly swapping polarity every few seconds."

That eliminated _Everything__._

"So that moon Astrid… is…?!"

"Mass reduction now calculated to be over 40% captain, and if the readings hold their rate of climb, it will start to really pull apart in less than one hour."

Sheppard spoke quietly to the captain, "Recommend we burn a messenger sir." there were only five Slipspace messenger probes on board. The African thought about it for a moment and spoke to Astrid, "Send a message via probe to Earth, all findings and a request for backup." the young Viking warmaiden nodded and vanished, "Joker! Ease us back, open the range to 200k." he looked to his first officer, "any thoughts Jane?"

"Training time." she said with a half smirk. Matched slowly by the captain, he turned to 1st lieutenant Pressly, "Combat alert Alfa. Raise the shields"

That decision would save their lives.

"Combat alert Alfa! All hands to stations!" the voice of the AI rang through the ship.

OOOOO

Garrus watched as the Mass Relay in front of him slowly woke up. The massive primary's core slowly building momentum and speed. Its tuning fork shape beginning to open up from its resting state.

It never ceased to amaze him that such an object could exist. Bright light flared out as the cores static discharges began to arc.

"Captain? Were starting to get the countdown reading." the Asari nodded in satisfaction. When the reading finished they would be able to activate the relay and jump to the other side. "Good. Garrus? Your orders?"

"Hold for now. Lets make sure the other ends clear first."

That decision would nearly kill them.

OOOOO

With the Dawnhammer fully prepared for battle, and another 10 minutes to any ship moving from earth to even start their orbital breakaways, Captain Anderson brooded. The messenger probe had been responded to in extremely quick fashion, and a whole horde of ships had been called up. Earth was priority one, if this was some sort of Covie weapon left behind the Dawnhammer had orders to observe and if necessary destroy.

"Captain? Debris has cleared enough to show the inner core." Astrid popped up on the A.I's holo-pedestal.

"Show me." what he got was something he didn't understand, "Astrid, what exactly are we looking at here?"

The combat A.I. shrugged in a thoughtful manner before setting down her ax against her skirt. "I'm not exactly certain Captain. I've been tracking some of the more unique pieces of debris, plus our own trajectory. Whatever it is, it is the source of the gravimetric fluctuations. Still getting stronger too. It almost seems like its some sort of massive gravity generator." Sheppard looked at the AI, "Forerunner?" "Flip a coin commander, you'll probably have better odds then what I'm calculating."

OOOOO

_Grid point Xjc117BnAD activation detected….. Activation Verified._

_**Possible escape route plotting attempt. Calculation nears absolute by 99.9999999%**_

_**Response. Attack exploration party. Leave no survivors.**_

_Agreed… Galatrex, status._

_Moving to intercept._

OOOOO

"Oh sweet Goddess…" the asari at the scanning station was young by the standards of her race at 75 she was barely considered old enough to leave her home. But the fight with the reapers had changed everything. Now she watched the displays for the probes sent out earlier to keep an eye on several close by Mass relays.

"Captain! A Sovereign class reaper has just exited the mass relay at Hokun!"

OOOOO

Garrus Vakarin was a Turian. A member of the most militarily dominant specices of Known Space. He had watched as reapers tore through his brethrens ships like a starving Krogan at an all you can eat buffet with lots of live wriggling things.

A Sovereign class….

The Matriarchs Light was a covert ops ship. Her strength was her ability to hide. Blown wide open now with all the damage she had sustained. No weapons that could even scratch the screens on the Reaper. And an engine he was told was being held together by space tape and prayers.

He looked to his friend sitting in the captains chair, "Take us through. And pray we can jump to FTL after we do."

OOOOO

"Captain, gravity readings just tripled."

Anderson looked up from the orders he had just received from high command. Admiral Hackett of fifth fleet was on his way with half the home fleet. They would take at least an hour to get here though. Slipspace micro jumps were something new, and untested. Hackett had landed about two hours out due to a slight miscalculation, and it appeared the problem was in the formulas themselves. So he was slowboating his way back to the artifact.

If that's what it was.

He stood and walked to the large forward window characteristic of the halcyon class. "More info Astrid." the avatar of the A.I. popped up on her pedestal, "The gravity readings and trajectory indications of nearby…"

A.I.s didn't stop talking without good reason. "Astrid?!"

"Captain! A ship has just appeared!" a lighted holographic circle with range and trajectory information showed a bright spark where none had been before. "Unknown classification, does not match any known ship in the database. Length of 121 meters, width 40 meters, height 25 meters. Estimate light scout frigate from configuration." the A.I. paused as the enlarged view of the ship oriented on them. A simple dart like purple cross. With a set of small wings fore and aft.

"And I think they spotted us…"

OOOOO

A Dreadnought. A gargantuan Dreadnought. Sitting just outside the debris field.

The quiet voice of the sensor officer read off the stats for the slab sided behemoth in front of the Matriarchs Light. "length 1.2 kilometers, height 500 meters, width 350 meters. Mass ranges in at over 100 thousand tons, off our scales. Evidence of gravimetric manipulation." then came the wham line…

"no Eezo detected…" the sensor techs voice trailed off. And Garrus felt the same way. Everything in spaceflight ran off Eezo. No exceptions.

Then came a very concerning issue. Something more concerning then a massive dreadnought that didn't run off Eezo.

"Captain! The mass relay is active again!"

OOOOO

"Those readings are back captain, I think the artifact is forming a graviton net to catch another ship. Readings are higher, I think this one is going to be bigger."

Anderson also noted something as the A.I. finished speaking. "And it looks like our new friends are backing away from the artifact." "Verified captain."

Sheppard spoke as she watched, concentrating on the angles and vectors "Sir, they reoriented on the device."

They had also seen the battle damage on the small ship. So were they being chased? Anderson thought. What the hell had they stumbled into?

An alien ship, obviously in recent battle. An artifact of unknown construction, which the alien ship had used to travel from god knows where.

"Send a signal to Hackett. Inform him of everything." A quick acknowledgment was heard.

Then something big dropped in, and it looked nothing like the first. Anderson didn't know what was going on but alarm bells were going off everywhere in his mind. Then the ship visibly oriented on them.

"Joker, at the first sign of trouble, evasive maneuvers.."

OOOOO

_Unknown ship detected. Technology not on proper course._

_Reviewing data…. Classify as possible threat._

_**Agreed, destroy at once. Salvage technology. We Must Learn More.**_

_Acknowledged._

OOOOO

The shields used by the Dawnhammer were improved versions of the shields used by Covenant warships. The silver and blue barriers raised invisibly around the ship, protecting her from anything and everything the universe could throw at her.

Or so her designers thought.

OOOOO

One moment Sheppard was looking at a ship that defied the word normal. Like something out of a old movie from an era when everything had to have tentacles.

The next she was thrown from her feet by an impact of staggering proportions. And landed hard like several others who were standing.

"Astrid! What the hell was That?!"

The A.I. responded with an impossibility, "A near C projectile commander! Fired by the big ship! Shields down. Damage minimal."

No hails. No attempt to talk. Just attack on sight.

It was Harvest all over again. Jane looked and saw the captain had landed bad, and appeared to be unconscious. She gave two orders, "Captains down! Get him to medical!"

"Return fire! Triple shot MAC fusion round!"

OOOOO

The new MAC aboard the Dawnhammer was something special cooked up by the R&amp;D boys. Capable of hurling a standard round, the three shot shredder light rounds, MAC SABOT rounds, and something really wild, the MAC fusion round.

A hollow shell filled with heavy hydrogen, specifically tritium. Surrounded in a lithium case.

It was preceded by two shredders.

The first round gave confirmation to theory. Mankind knew next to nothing about shields. The Dawnhammer's were literally first run prototypes. The big ship had them though and the first round spaced off into the unknown. Deflected.

The second round blew out the shield, and punched into the armor with a force equivalent to a plane crash. Superficial damage.

The third round… was something else entirely.

Launched from the Dawnhammer at its max firing velocity of roughly .452c the light round impacted with a couple megatons of force. But that was only the opening part. As it slammed into the hull of the reaper, the front collapsed and pressurized the fluid within. A hundred, then a thousand atmospheres of pressure occurred in the blink of an eye, heat from this compression suffused the material in temperatures that rival a star. The lithium forced to compress in such a way to release neutrons. The result was fusion upon impact.

Boosting the already considerable tonnage of a weapon nicknamed the "big stick".

The blast ravened through the area ripping back along its path of impact and blowing forward into the ship. Melting and ravening through critical subsystems.

OOOOO

Garrus didn't know what the four hells that dreadnought was made of. First tanking the Reapers most deadly weapon, a hypervelocity liquid metal projectile. A weapon that he had personally watched carve through his brethrens dreadnoughts like a knife through paki.

Then spitting out its own version of death, in the form of a spinal mount, on target, fusion projectile weapon. That the sensors said followed two other rounds massing about a quarter of the Matriarch Light's own weight.

He wasn't going to think about that though.

Garrus decided the universe was either looking out for them… Or just decided to screw with them one more time before they were carted off by the great spirits.

That weapon had smacked the Reaper hard. Forcing it back hard enough to cancel it building velocity. Sitting still relative to them and in such a nice spot, what a gentleman this reaper. "Captain?"

"Fire at will!" was the Asari's reply.

OOOOO

"Commander! The smaller ship is firing on the big one! Light high velocity MAC rounds of some sort!"

Sheppard made a snap decision, "Classify the smaller vessel friendly neutral! Target lock status?"

"Ready Ma'am!" came the reply from Pressly. "Fire longbows!" "Longbows away!"

A newer version of the archer missile, the longbow was slightly faster, more maneuverable and carried a slightly enhanced warhead. It didn't do much though. Almost immediately Sheppard saw pulse-laser fire from the squid-ship. Shooting down the incoming missiles with astounding accuracy "_damn-it! _Mac status!"

"58% captain" Astrid was worried, "ma'am they are orienting on us again!"

"Joker evasive!"

OOOOO

With the Reapers shields down and its pulse lasers busy with the mass missile barrage, Captain T'soni had maneuvered the Light a little closer and they were attempting to knock out the Reapers main thrusters. It was a risky move, but with the majority of the machines attention on the Dreadnought, they had a chance.

Dodging and weaving through the debris from what appeared to have been a light moon, the matriarch light fired twice in quick succession. And barely scratched the murderous machine.

OOOOO

Another of those hyper-velocity projectiles ripped at the Dawnhammer. Strangely enough the shock was less without the shield up. It still did a number though. Shaking the ship hard.

"Damage report!" "Looks like a glancing blow ma'am! Sweet Jesus, it's a liquid metal projectile… Armors breached in sectors 21 through 29 and 24 looks bad. Decks 20-23. Fire suppression on. No casualties reported." the unspoken 'yet' came through, though.

"Astrid, MAC charge status!" "Almost Ready, Commander." "Load Sabot!"

OOOOO

Deep within the hull of the Dawnhammer. Massive systems for moving around multi-hundred ton rounds came to life. Astrid watched as she selected the proper round from storage, and shunted it into the loader system. Three quick steps later, and a grand total of 30 seconds had passed. The main breach opened and received the specialty round.

The Sabot was a spear of tungsten and depleted uranium, compressed and formed into a bolt about the same length as a standard Mac round. But surrounded with plastic padding to fill the cannons tube. It weighed about four times as much as a heavy round. With the new coil control systems though, Astrid could control the launch better, and still get a respectable 35% of the speed of light.

'this things going to hit like a hammer.' was the words of a tech when they had seen the specs for it.

Astrid agreed with that assessment. Only one issue.

They had to be closer.

OOOOO

Jeff "Joker" Moreau was trying to make a multi-thousand ton warship dance to his command. Hurling them around differing pieces of debris of which the enemy ship was shooting at now with that crazy gun it had along with its laser system. If the chatter around him was any indication, those lasers where slightly better then the covenant equivalent.

"Joker! Re-orient for the Mac!" The Commander was really shining with this, barking out commands and taking in info like a pro. "Aye ma'am. Coming about!"

The ship groaned around him as her aged hull flexed slightly from the stress of the turn. Then another one of those crazy projectiles slammed the ship.

OOOOO

Garrus didn't know who had built the slab sided dreadnought. He didn't know why they would need a war machine capable of maneuvering like a frigate, at the size of a dreadnought, the damage absorption rate of a space station (it had taken three shots so far from a Reaper and still fought, granted glancing blows but still), and the firepower equivalent to a siege weapon.

And there were more on the way. An entire fleet.

This Relay had come out in a garden world system. They had just registered the third planet as life supporting.

And if the number and size of the ships around was any indication… a Home system.

He hoped they would be alive to talk to them. As the Light took a quick succession of pulse laser shots.

OOOOO

Deep within the Reapers hull many decisions were being made. That fusion weapon had done considerable damage to the main gun. Repairs were under way, but would take time. The liquid metal canon had been breached by its own firing. A considerable loss to combat effectiveness. This new species was very interesting. Advanced understanding of magnetics. Advanced understanding of gravitics. Advanced understanding of fusion properties.

Advanced understanding of Artificial Intelligence with respect to hostile hacking.

This was Galatrex's only explanation to it's repeated rebuffing, electronic warfare wise.

The reaper noted the major grouping of ships approaching it's position. This group consisted of many different kinds of ships. Some larger then the dreadnought it currently faced. Considering the balance of power and factoring in the damaged cannon. The reaper made a decision.

OOOOO

"Ma'am, the squid-ship is turning around." this from Pressly.

Sheppard's green eyes narrowed as the Dawnhammer lined up for its next shot. "MAC?" "Ready commander." She watched as the stern of the enemy ship was presented. And spoke one word.

"Fire."

OOOOO

Garrus watched as the Reaper turned, they had screwed up, and now currently hid behind a large chunk of debris. The Light had gotten a little to close to the Reaper, and taken a pulse laser for their troubles. Tali reported a major coolant leak in their primary fusion reactor. Shutdown in 3 mins with nothing she could do. Without the coolant system the fusion reaction would overheat then fizzle as its containment coils melted.

He noted something else as well. The grey dreadnought orienting on the reaper as it completed its turn.

With the fleet of warships bearing down the reaper was running. That was a first.

Then the dreadnought fired.

OOOOO

The massive Sabot round left the muzzle at its 35% C, it's peak speed. Shedding the now melted plastic from its spear-like body in a semi-controlled way. But at this range it would take a second for the bolt to impact. But didn't affect its trajectory much.

The reapers shields had regenerated some in the time since the previous impact. It would not have mattered if they had been at full strength.

Impacting upon the aft of the ship near dead center. With near three times the force of the previous shredder rounds, the spear of depleted uranium and tungsten slammed through the Reaper lengthwise, creating a vacuum effect behind its passage from friction and what atmosphere the reaper contained. Sucking along anything and everything not pulverized in its path.

Along its way it passed through many important items.

Eventually it slammed out the other side and continued on, an energy state oblivious to its passage and retaining 90% of its velocity. And a slight course correction.

It only had one or two more objects in front of it.

OOOOO

The reaper blew up. Not twitched a couple of times. Not broke into multiple pieces. The. Damn. Thing. Blew. Up.

Garrus could feel his mandibles fall open at the energy transfer he had just witnessed. He also realized that he was looking at a dreadnought which could destroy a sovereign class reaper in single combat. At that moment he knew he may have found the salvation of the galaxy.

He hoped he could talk to them.

"Uh captain, that round…" "_Oh Snarc!_ Brace!"

The round slammed by them with some serious velocity. Dragging a whole pile of junk behind it. Their shields depleted many of the pieces pattered their hull like rain. Some crashed into them with a bit of force shaking the ship like a Varren with a piece of meat. But nothing major managed to find them.

_Thank the spirits for small favors. _Garrus thought to himself as he picked himself up. Then the power went out.

_Or not. _As his feet left the floor.

OOOOO

The round continued it uncaring way. Oblivious to its path. An energy state with no destination. Its trajectory bending further still as it passed the Relay and gaining a little bit of speed.

Unfortunately the Matriarchs Light was not the only object mentioned to be in the way.

OOOOO

"Astrid, open a signal to Hackett." "Aye commander."

"Hackett here, commander. Status." "Green sir. Larger enemy combatant destroyed. Smaller presumed friendly-neutral craft is damaged, and seems to have lost power just now. Request permission to engage in rescue effort. Sir." "Granted commander. Get a quarantine set up and get them safe. We've got a lot of work ahead."

At that moment a massive flash appeared.

"What the hell..?" Sheppard's words left her mouth before she could think. Astrid provided the information. "Commander, I think our round just impacted with Pluto. Trajectory analysis indicates it was affected by the artifact and impact with the larger ship." "_Oh hell_. Damage assessment."

Pressley responded next, "Well commander, judging by the impact. I think we just altered Pluto's orbit a bit."

OOOOO

Garrus watched as the Light was pulled into the massive launch bay of the Dreadnought. And slowly settled into a resting position on the floor of the cavernous room. The deck started to take on an incline as gravity began to reassert itself. Slow enough for the crew to get themselves oriented properly. It finally settled at one eighth normal, and he appreciated the aliens understanding.

But now he and the rest of the crew was at their mercy.

He prepped himself at the airlock. Liara and Tali behind him. Hopefully they were friendly.

Hopefully.

OOOOO

_Galatrex does not respond to hails. _

_**Calculation based on data presents theory of destruction by unknown species. Calculation is approximately 87%.**_

…_. Presume destruction by Unknown species. New priority. Capture of technology and biological essence. Gather as many as you need to make a reconnaissance in force._

_**Acknowledged.**_

* * *

**Authors Notes: I think humanity is in for a real treat this time. Along with Garrus and the others. **

**So many have written, and written well, the various first contact scenarios that I'm not going to rehash it. I simply wanted to write a good space battle. With a few cool things thrown in. It wasn't supposed to be a curb stomp battle (Galatrex got a few good licks in against a Halcyon refit.) and I pretty much just ignored the math and physics for the "Pluto Shot". (I think it would take a less sudden impact, and more a large object for flexing the orbit. Anything hitting hard enough to alter the trajectory would probably shatter the planet.)**

**I also ignored physics for the fusion round. (I'm not certain if it could actually happen, I just wanted cool) and yes its Astrid from "How to train your Dragon." **

**Its fantasy, leave me alone. Authors choice.**

**But other then that send me a note or review. Especially with anything involving technical stuff in my writing. Like proper grammar and such.**

* * *

**Authors note (4/3/15) : due to the enormous positive response to this story, I shall be continuing it into a short series. Many thanks to all who have favorited, followed, and reviewed.**

**I am seriously flabbergasted at the response. I expected a far different one, let me tell ya. **

RandomReader: **your review will hopefully be fully answered in the next chapter or two. expect deep freeze fridge logic.**

Master T-rex: **MC is currently in deep freeze, as this cronologicly ends up about a year after halo3, and somewhere between ME 1-2. **

Jarhewd762: **not sure, i'll have to think of something here. might have to work on how long the cycles take.**

**to all the rest who have reviewed so far thank you. **

**Paaz Etaak Unazhaal**

**Ace Warbringer**


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN: You guys want something good, I'm going to have to work at it. Extending a one shot like this is going to be tough. I never had any intention until you guys went berserk and read my little story into the ground. So expect a slow chapter. I'll try to keep things faster later. But I have to build a bit first to make a proper story. **_

_**As always, Read and Review please.**_

_**Warning: Lots of OOC characters.**_

* * *

**Dawnhammer**

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Commander Sheppard watched as the three aliens debarked from their ship. By some accident of design, the quarantine bay they had hastily erected was dead across from the alien ships airlock. Sheppard had simply sealed the launch bay. Which was for the repair and maintenance of prowlers, a new idea by high-com. They wanted a ship that was cutting edge for battle, yet could deploy a small stealth vessel for infiltration. The bay itself was minimal entrance and exit design, making it a logical choice for the aliens ship. Not to mention the size. The alien ship practically squared away into the bay like it belonged there.

Behind Sheppard stood Lt. Pressly and Chief Engineer Adams, Dr. Chakwas the chief medical officer, along with a security team of 4 marines lead by SSgt Parker. A sheer mountain of a Norwegian.

"Astrid?" by her order the A.I. did not show itself but did speak to her quiet question. "All three are armed ma'am, and different species. All are wearing some form of body armor. The tall one in the middle," who was right now fiddling with a wrist mounted holographic device of some sort, "is using some sort of computer slash micro tool. I cant get much more from it."

Adams made the connection, "It's checking the atmosphere." Pressly looked concerned, and spoke in a quiet voice, "lets hope they breath oxygen."

Sheppard nodded, "Thank you Astrid. Gentlemen." she paused, "Staff Sergeant. No hostile movements, but keep ready." Sergeant Parker spoke an affirmative in his deep voice. "Yes ma'am."

OOOOO

"Atmo's good, fair to middlin oxy-nitro mix… it's fair, little lower oxygen then standard. No real contaminants or things that could hurt us. We can remove our hats Liara." By default with such an announcement, Garrus left out the tiny Quarian. "Tali, you confirm?" she hit her Omni-tool on the side and fiddled for a moment, Garrus assumed it had been damaged somehow recently, "Yes Specter. Looks good from here."

Garrus and Liara both removed their helmets, then turned towards the walls of the massive launch bay. He immediately noticed something.

"Alright, seems we have a welcoming committee…" his words trailed off as something weird registered finally on his brain.

Two looked like really pale pink Asari.

OOOOO

Sheppard tried to maintain her calm as Astrid whispered the relevant data. "She stands about the same height as you commander. Body mass is approximately 80% human norm. Quick medical scans indicate the exact same number of bones and their placement is the same as the human body, but slightly smaller at a guess. I have no other information commander." the good doctor seemed to be having a near meltdown.

Jane felt the same way. Blue skinned hairless human. That was all she had right now, in her shock.

And if she was reading their stances right. (at least she hoped). The reverse was true for the aliens vs. them.

The larger skinny one looked like an elite, but human sized and (somewhat) shaped. Knees worked the same way as a humans. vs. the multi joint system the Elites used. The smallish alien, who remained fully encased in (her? The small bumps in front seemed to indicate female) suit. Walked with a denigrated stance.

And that blue woman walked with a light grace that seemed to flow naturally, like a high society woman from earth.

By their position the near Elite was in charge, and as he approached Sheppard reached out and tapped the hastily erected shield, making it flare from its invisible state.

OOOOO

Now that was interesting, internal containment fields. Garrus stopped about an arm length away from the invisible barrier. He watched as one of the different species, who looked very similar to the pink Asari, but slightly bulkier and with grey head fur. Maybe it was a variant of the krogan sized armored one in the back. Were they related somehow? The grey furred semi/asari (?) tapped and fiddled with the holopanel in front of it. It then spoke, it's attention on the Pink Asari, It's voice similar, but a lot deeper then what an asari's was. They must use the same vocal patterns Garrus realized.

The pink skinned, red furred asari nodded in response, never taking her eyes off him, which flashed a lovely shade that he had no words for. Then she spoke, her voice almost exactly matching the timbre of an Asari. Save that it was a few points lower on the scale.

OOOOO

"I think we're good commander."

"Doctor?" Jane's voice seemed to snap the doctor out of her trance and into action. Her medical scanners reaching out and giving them a much better resolution scan then the standard ones mounted throughout the ship. It only took her a few short moments. "I think we are safe commander, as long as everyone does the usual decon procedures."

Shepard nodded, then reached out and deactivated the field. She waited for it to fizzle with a pop. Then she took one step forward into the bay. Bringing herself face to mandible with the near elite.

OOOOO

These near Asari were smart, and not just in their shipbuilding. They had just scanned his little group, and Garrus was impressed with their decisive decision. It was common enough knowledge in most council space that first contact was a safe routine medically (though some had to remain suited outside of their home environs). The various microbes and other bugs wouldn't have had time to adapt yet, '_Give it a hundred years though_,' Garrus shuddered mentally at the thought. '_And that's why we have decon procedures on every ship, at the snarcing airlock.'_

His attention though was once again brought back to the near Asari.

From what he could see this red furred one was armed and walked with a stance he saw on those who fought in a lot of ground combat. The other grey furred pink asari however was a scientist through and through. She fidgeted and gawked.

It was the other aliens though that had Garrus on edge. And told of the importance of the one in front of him.

They got nervous, and all of them had their attention on him. Stances shifted and weapons, (well he assumed they were weapons, he wasn't about to test that theory though, but if it looks like a gun and is held like a gun…) were held in tighter grips.

He spoke quietly to the two behind him as this red furred near Asari stopped within arms reach. "Don't do anything sudden. The ones in back are about ready to shoot me." a pair of nervous agreements came up. But were totally trusting in him.

Spirits above how did he earn such trust.

OOOOO

The buzzing command and two acknowledgments were easy enough to follow. Jane didn't even have to look in order to give the command. "Sergeant, gentlemen. Relax. That's an order." a slight rustling reached her ears as the men shifted stance.

She would not have a Harvest on her hands. Technically she shouldn't even be here. A diplomatic team should be handling this. But with a recent battle, a light frigate that looked like it was ready to fall apart if you sneezed hard on it, and now a set of three widely different aliens on her deck. Jane was in the spotlight.

She indicated herself, "Commander Jane Sheppard."

The alien got the idea, and indicated himself, before buzzing a multi-phrase word set. Sheppard hoped it was it's name

And with the unusual first contact greetings over she simply saluted the alien.

Who returned with an arm across his chest, hand open to tap the breast plate twice.

Jane brought up her holopad and began using a pictogram set to explain what was going to happen. These had been designed by the finest minds on earth to relay concepts and ideas. The near elite had his tool out in seconds and relayed a similar set of images afterwards.

This was going to be a long day. But productive.

OOOOO

Five hours later had her on the holo with Admiral Hackett. "Sir I've forwarded all the data to Helena for you. Astrid is having a tough time building a translation matrix, so no real words were exchanged today. The aliens seem content to stay in their ship for now. Though it seems they are in desperate need of repairs. Your orders sir?"

"Hold for now. I've been in contact with earth-com. New orders should come down soon. Good job Commander."

OOOOO

Another hour after that had her in medical. "How's our Captain, doctor?" the good doctor smiled lightly at Jane before speaking, "Alert commander, he's just woken up, and I gave him the bad news, I hope you have some good news for him?" "In a way."

Jane walked into the medical wings recuperation room. When Anderson had been thrown by that first impact, he had landed hard. His neck had been broken in four places, shearing his spinal cord. Thankfully that wasn't the death sentence it would have been even a twenty years ago. With neural regeneration tech it would be a year before he walked properly again, shorter to actually move, all the injury had done was add time to the healing process.

She found him lying in alert in the recovery bed. His eyes tracked in on her. "Jane! Good to see you. How are our new guests?" "Interesting sir, have you reviewed the video?" "Yes, I have. This big armored one. It's in charge?" "Yes sir, though don't ask me to pronounce his name." a chuckle came out of the captain, "I wont then."

He changed the subject. "How's the Dawnhammer?"

The commanders face went hard, and began her report "Sir, We have sustained damage to the forward.." an alert ping came in, silencing the commander as Astrid's voice interrupted them. "Captain? Commander? New orders in from Earth. _expedite." _

The African looked at Jane standing next to the bed "Astrid. I Captain David Anderson do hereby relieve myself of duty for medical reasons, and transfer command of the UNSC Dawnhammer to my second in command, commander Jane Sheppard, until I am declared medically fit or am returned to duty by higher orders." he paused for a moment, and saw the stiff stance of his first officer. "Jane she's all yours, try to return her in one piece. I don't want to have to explain another lost ship." the inside joke brought a smirk to Jane's face, and caused her to relax a bit, "That only happened once sir." she saluted the captain, then turned to carry out whatever orders earthcom had cooked up.

OOOOO

The new orders came from the top. The very top. Lord Admiral Terrance Hood kind of top.

Expedite: Return to Earth, disregard Cole Protocol, all speed.

With all that had happened just recently Shepard was very nervous about things. She had contacted Hackett, who verified the orders very reluctantly. There were reasons the Cole protocol was in place. Good reasons. Granted, she had violated them already, but it was that or watch the ship as it went dark. And from their sensor readings… and now detailed scans… they wouldn't have lasted long. That small scout frigate would have died a slow painful death. And the Dawnhammer's new guests with it.

Standing behind the helm she gave the order. "Earthcom. micro jump."

Astrid popped up on her avatar pedestal. "Aye commander. Generators ready. Drive ready. Calculating… have to compensate for the artifacts gravity pulses. Hmm, that might be why Admiral Hackett landed so far out. Calculations complete. Ready Mr. Moreau." "Aye ma'am. Ready on your word commander."

"Jump."

OOOOO

Garrus knew Tali as fairly excitable. But whatever system of movement these pink Asari used had thrown her into a whirlwinds of astro-science. If it wasn't for his own technical background she would have lost him in the first five words. As it was he got to twenty.

"Okay… let me put this in terms I think I understand. They used a massive electro gravitic pulse…"

"Right!" "followed by a shift in light-matter conversion…" "yes! Then using some form of decaying micro dark matter pulses, jumped the ship! We are now nearly 30 million kilometers from the sun! We used to be more then thirty standard AU from it! And its on the other side of us!" that was pretty clear. The secondary backup generator (tiny at best) had finally been repaired by the suited Quarian. Giving them just enough power to run the bare essentials and little else. When they were in the process of turning off the nav sensors they had found the discrepancy. As the "jump" had taken place right after they had come back online.

One thing about uncontrolled shutdowns… they never shut things off completely sometimes.

But in this case Garrus was going to let it slide.

"A jump drive…" "That doesn't require a mass relay."

No Garrus wasn't going to begrudge the shutdown.

OOOOO

When Liara had rebooted the nav system at Garrus's request, she had figured out something. The readings indicated multiple planets. But the jump across the system had given them a huge cross range to work with. There were eight or eleven planets, (depending on your definition of planet) and they had just cozied up to the third one. They were now just passing its massive moon, and on course with what appered to be a set of stations in orbit around the planet. Readings were fuzzier then a Jakaw. The only way they knew they were stations was the massive planer polarized gravitic fields around them, against the backdrop of the planets point spherical field.

The thing was… this wasn't the garden world they had seen on scanners. So maybe the inner planet had better facilities? Solar power would most certainly be more readily available.

Garrus agreed with that sentiment. These near Asari seemed to take a very direct route in both engineering and thinking. The two were huddling over the scanner station discussing theories when a crewmember placed to watch the door so to speak entered.

Apparently the near Asari wished to talk again.

OOOOO

Garrus stared out the window in a state that could only be described as awe. The largish observation bay window giving a great view. And screwing with what remained of his sanity.

Item one: There were two garden worlds in this system. He had "asked" via the pictogram tools, and received the answer. For a very long time, these near Asari had been planting the forth world. Garden world was indeed an appropriate term. As this one was far more heavily populated going by the lights of the dark side.

Item two: Was the impossibility hanging in orbit in front of him. A massive station, with only one purpose. The entire damn thing was a mass driver of incredible size. Anchored by a large ring, the tower shape served no other purpose. In fact it would hinder the motion of the station. And a short distance away he could see another one! And even farther, a half completed version…

And this ship itself, this dreadnought, which he had thought was so powerful, was dwarfed by one about two to three times it size. Flying in escort, along with several other gargantuan ships.

And it seemed to be their destination, this massive structure.

Which had another version of these near asari dreadnaughts docked to it. And it was dwarfed by the sheer… size… of… the…

OOOOO

Sheppard watched for what little she could see with the near elite. He (assigned for convenience, she had no clue what sex the alien was) seemed… stunned for lack of better words.

She hoped the cabal of A.I.'s here at Earth would be good enough to decipher their language. She had forbidden Astrid from trying to hack the aliens computers. Of course being an AI….

Well, it would have been successful. If it wasn't for the decentralization of their computers. Nothing was connected to the main comm. Nothing was connected anywhere. Even the tool the creature carried was silent. Granted storage must be limited. Astrid was confounded to no end. Served the A.I. right.

But then came the wham line.

Astrid had gone over the battles data. And the usual hacks had been attempted. Standard stuff. Nothing she couldn't handle.

All of it had come from the big ship. Nothing from the small one. Two and two made four. They had made a ship un-hackable in the most direct yet subtle way possible. Of course the small ship now nestled in their bay had been designed for stealth too. Astrid had run multiple simulations, and it would have held up well even to human standards. Able to loiter close enough to do some serious elint work. But to make the ship silent like that… it didn't make sense.

Humanity though had a few tricks waiting up their sleeves, at least for anything trying to stealth it nowadays. Covenant infiltration ships had finally been made by their gravimetric signatures late in the war. The results were about 50-50 or a little better, but that was better then the near zero percent from before. Even humanities own prowlers could be detected this way, with a slightly lower chance. Hostile hacking was taken care of through buffer systems with heavy encryption gear for those ships without an A.I.

Sheppard was also absolutely certain they could detect such a ship at close range. And Astrid was just about certain they could find it at longer range visually too. One reason the prowlers had always been painted black.

Who thought bright purple was a good color for a stealth ship?

At least some answers would hopefully come from the bits and pieces of the larger ship.

And maybe this stunned looking near Elite had some answers as well.

Sheppard hoped, because Earth was one step away from all out war if the call-up was to be believed.

OOOOO

_**WE are ready. **_

_Begin reconnaissance. The calculations are in your favor._

_**The calculations may be flawed. We find your attempted assurance squared and cubed.**_

_The calculations were made in perfection. Accept the inevitable._

_**Beginning reconnaissance. Our victory is assured.**_

OOOOO

Hackett stared out the window of his command ship, the Battlecruiser Everest. The Navel Intelligence branch had finally arrived, and were sifting through the site. The lights of the ships drive systems flickering in and out of view. Taking every piece of that unknown squidship they could find and shuttling it back to Mars.

He still didn't trust the rat bastards though, never have and never will. The Paragonsky thing was just the head of the systematic issues from giving a group dedicated to secrets too much power. Yes, you do need to fight back. But any war should be conducted in the open. Not behind a cloak of lies and deceit.

Hackett was convinced the Covenant war would have gone better as well if they hadn't farted around dumping countless resources into ground forces. Battles that had been won on the ground had invariably been lost in the sky. It didn't matter if the ground was held at that point.

He shook himself mentaly, no sense in hindsight. Now he watched as those shifty ONI bastards combed the area. As much as he hated to admit they had the expertise to put things back together. Whether or not they had been responsible for some shady dealings.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't keep a hawks eye on them.

Hackett turned back to the replay of the Dawnhammer's battle. Trying to learn everything he could. Know thy enemy, study him, know him better then you know yourself. Sun Tzu still applied, and those liquid metal projectiles gave him the shivers. Dawnhammer was a prototype test bed. The first true shielded human ship. And she had been pounded by the squidships weapons.

No other ship in the fleet had shields that would help, save a few with early gravimetric screens (which were useless against plasma weapons, though they might help with the crazy gun). On the plus side, Mac cannons had nearly all the upgrades that had been applied to the Dawnhammer, mostly due to the better control systems which were easier to install. Just a matter of switching the superconducting coil timing systems out. Providing a major increase in efficiency for relatively little effort. Mass also seemed to be on the human side, if he read the differential weight readings correctly. The squid ship outweighed a human vessel of comparable size. Armor was some super dense material that had the engineers buzzing, not to mention their shields operated off a different theory altogether.

"Admiral?"

Hackett turned away to focus on the young lieutenant dressed smartly in the black of ONI. Another thing he had recommended to Hood that'd be changed. No need for them to have different uniforms. "Yes lieutenant?"

"Preliminary survey is complete sir. You will want to read this." she handed over a data pad which he began to scan through as he picked up his coffee.

It got halfway to his lips, then reversed course and was set back down.

OOOOO

Sheppard saluted then stood at attention. she had been immediately called in for debriefing, forcing her to leave Pressley in charge for now.

Five people sat behind a half moon desk made of titanium-3. Its top surface a polished black glass. Multiple holo-projectors throughout the room could display anything anywhere around her. Currently dark.

The only light was the soft blue from a number of small reference lights for zero gee orientation.

"Commander, we have reviewed your report." the deep rough voice of the man in the center, dressed impeccably in his white uniform, rolled through the dark room. "We have a few questions for you." Sheppard didn't move or speak. The military protocol was specific on that, and she was in deep. Deeper then Akuze if her instincts were anything to go by.

A young man dressed in the black of ONI leaned forward, Commanders insignia glinted on his lapels. He was of average height and sported brown hair neatly combed into place, "Commander, you said that the first shot disabled your shields correct?" "Yes sir." "How? Are they not supposed to handle that sort of impact?"

Sheppard thought back through her conversations with engineer Adams. "Commander, while testing the shields in initial phases they held up to even greater impacts in megatons then what hit the Dawnhammer. However those impacts were at much slower velocities with larger masses. Engineer Adams reported to me that the buffer systems to absorb and dissipate such a shock were overloaded." Jane looked to a corner projector. "Shield schematic number 528-23-Bravo please." one of the multiple A.I.'s pulled the buffer system up. "The buffer system is supposed to be capable of handling the impact, but our systems to handle the kinetic shock were overloaded. Zoom section 12." one of the cutouts was magnified "Thank you. The incoming shock spike blew out here. This subsystem was overloaded. The impulse too sharp by 30% This threw engineer Adams a curveball. As he was one of the men who helped integrate the system."

"Why did this happen commander? Wasn't this particular system taken directly from the Covenant? Thier shield had handled many of our best weapons." this from a white coated female admiral from Alpha Centauri.

Sheppard nodded, "It was. Though it is an older system with many drawbacks apparently. Though engeneer Adams has given several ideas on how to improve our systems."

Shepard called for several simple schematics, "The capacitance of covenant shield systems over time was our first clue, during the war we noticed a five fold increase in effective resistance of their shields. This was due to their retuning of their shields to projectile weapons. But later on we found this on Akuze. Captured covenant vessel bravo please, section…"

"Stop!" the ONI commander was red in the face, and halfway out of his chair, "How do you know that commander?!"

Jane gave him a flat look. Then looked to the Lord Admiral who spoke in a very quiet voice. "Commander Sheppard had been on Akuze when it fell, Commander Haddock. She was the only survivor besides Spartan 212. They were the ones to capture that ship. That's why she's is cleared N7 by me personally."

* * *

**AN: Cliffhanger?! Oh man Ace what are you doing? "well… they kinda threw me for a loop when they liked the story. I am now scrambling like a wet cat to put together something halfway decent." what about space battles? "and ground battles and this and that and lore tuning… I'm working on it!" (ace goes and hides in corner with computer. Typing madly.)**


End file.
